To plaid or not to plaid.....thats the question??

[JohntheBiker]

I wore a fly plaid as a groom but have not found an event since my wedding where I would have felt comfortable wearing it again. As Nathan suggested, most folks around here try to observe what they perceive to be the "way to wear it".

[duke_19_62]

"I haven't found a good you tube instruction on how to fold a pleat into it and add the brooch...."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xH44F9o25U From Rocky at USA Kilts' Youtube channel.

[DyerStraits]

As for formal wear changing, I hate that it has and despite my wife telling me I was born in the wrong century, I will fight kicking and screaming the demise of formal wear.

I could not agree more. To Plaid Or Not Plaid would be a far less agonizing decision if everyone else would dress more formally when/where more formality is due. As the late James Coburn complained in an interview shortly before his death regarding the current crop of Hollywood Leading Men, "Nobody has style anymore". This is yet another reason why, when in doubt, I tend to overdress rather than underdress--it's a potential opportunity to subtly and silently goad the Habitually Casual into making a bit more effort to be a bit better turned out.

[Nathan]

1) I'm not sure wearing a plaid is more formal than not, just different. There are and were plaids for all levels of formality.
2) The saying "better to be overdressed than underdressed" misses the obvious point that it's best of all to be "appropriately dressed".

[Billleigj3]

I have see this before...but I don't know how to sew a box pleat!...LOL Im sure its not required ...but looks cleaner.

There are very few plaid tutorials on the net..... Slow down and talk about the Plaid... Folding....putting on the brooch etc..... Ok which one of you are going to do the you tube video - "Plaids fro Dummies.."

[DyerStraits]

1) I'm not sure wearing a plaid is more formal than not, just different. There are and were plaids for all levels of formality.
2) The saying "better to be overdressed than underdressed" misses the obvious point that it's best of all to be "appropriately dressed".

I completely agree--my point being that you're more likely to be appropriately dressed if you aim high rather than low.

[Jock Scot]

Do you know, I rather think many would be much better spending their hard earned loot on properly fitting kilt attire, by that I mean more of a tailored look, than chasing round after this that and the other accessory and then adding it to the often ill fitting basics. Those in the past who cut a dash in a superbly fitted dinner jackets, like Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Todd, Cary Grant and others had style even when wearing the same sort of attire as others. Their trick was to have well fitting outfits and it really is something that kilt wearers ought to bear in mind more often and it may work out less expensive in the long run. It does not always mean that one must visit the most expensive tailor, but it does require more than a certain amount of know how with what is actually required with basic kilt attire, as opposed to making do, and then the help of some skilled person with a needle and thread.

[Geoff Withnell]

Do you know, I rather think many would be much better spending their hard earned loot on properly fitting kilt attire, by that I mean more of a tailored look, than chasing round after this that and the other accessory and then adding it to the often ill fitting basics. Those in the past who cut a dash in a superbly fitted dinner jackets, like Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Todd, Cary Grant and others had style even when wearing the same sort of attire as others. Their trick was to have well fitting outfits and it really is something that kilt wearers ought to bear in mind more often and it may work out less expensive in the long run. It does not always mean that one must visit the most expensive tailor, but it does require more than a certain amount of know how with what is actually required with basic kilt attire, as opposed to making do, and then the help of some skilled person with a needle and thread.

I think another part of the formal style of the men in the past was their comfort in their clothes. Look at pictures of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis - the Rat Pack. Their tuxedos always fit well, as Jock notes, but they also were completely at home in them. At a lot of kilted events, it is easy to see some men, even in well made, obviously expensive kit, haven't worn it enough to feel comfortable with it.

[Nathan]

Do you know, I rather think many would be much better spending their hard earned loot on properly fitting kilt attire, by that I mean more of a tailored look, than chasing round after this that and the other accessory and then adding it to the often ill fitting basics. Those in the past who cut a dash in a superbly fitted dinner jackets, like Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Todd, Cary Grant and others had style even when wearing the same sort of attire as others. Their trick was to have well fitting outfits and it really is something that kilt wearers ought to bear in mind more often and it may work out less expensive in the long run. It does not always mean that one must visit the most expensive tailor, but it does require more than a certain amount of know how with what is actually required with basic kilt attire, as opposed to making do, and then the help of some skilled person with a needle and thread.

This is so very true! It's certainly worth the extra cash to have that nice vintage ebay tweed properly altered to fit your body. Don't be content to have the sleeves too long and the body too big. People can and do notice if your clothes don't fit properly. Even if you can't spare the cash to get all the tailoring done at once, do the sleeves one month and perhaps have that collar roll taken care of on another pay day down the road. it's worth it to have garments that fit properly. They look significantly better and when your clothes fit, you have that comfort, confidence and ease that Geoff mentions because you know you look like a million bucks.

[OC Richard]

If I may, a word of warning about using these pictures as examples of what to wear with Highland attire. These wonderfully constructed pictures were arranged as eye candy during the height of the romantic and wealthy Victorian love affair with the Highlands of Scotland, by a skilled, but commercially minded artist. Please do not regard the subject matter in the pictures as any general guide to Highland attire for the masses.These subjects are at best, if you like, wearing Sunday best and are more likely to have been dressed from the local Laird's wardrobe.

True that many of the subjects were kitted out by their Clan Chiefs in outrageous finery for these portraits (The Highlanders of Scotland, commissioned by Queen Victoria) and can't be used as a guide to ordinary Highland Dress of the period.

However many of the subjects are in absolutely plain attire, without a bit of metal, lacking things we take for granted today such as cap badges, flashes, and kilt pins, wearing ordinary outdoor hightopped working boots, utterly plain jackets which wouldn't be considered appropriate for kiltwearing today due to their ordinary cut, and so forth. This is as plain and workmanlike as Highland Dress can get, and is backed up by a vast number of contemporary photos showing exactly the same dress.

Back to the topic of fly plaids, as far as I can tell these are a quite recent invention, the plain square of fringed tartan that's pinned at the shoulder and simply hangs down.

What has been around since c1800 is what was called the 'belted plaid' (not the great kilt of the 18th century) which is a complex expensive rather heavy tailored garment that has a belt that buckles around the waist and a mass of fringed pleated tartan that goes up and has a sewn-in tab that's pinned at the shoulder. It was adopted by the kilted Highland regiments to simulate the appearance of the great kilt when that garment was abolished c1800, and it's been worn in civilian Evening Dress as well ever since.

Here's a thread where the 'belted plaid' is explained and Steve posts detailed photos showing its construction

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...79/index3.html

The wearing of plaids with civilian Evening Dress was pretty much out of style by the 1920s when Highland Evening Dress underwent simplification and the oldfashioned wearing of dirks, swords, dirkbelts, swordbelts, plaids, brooches, and even a pair of all-steel Highland pistols became passe. The new look was simple, clean, and elegant. Not to say that people still didn't wear belted plaids (not the great kilt type) sometimes, they did, but not as often as previously.

The very height of late Victorian Highland Evening Dress



the clean elegant simplicity of Evening Dress of the 1920s and 1930s



the ordinary Highland Dress of the 1860s and 1870s, precisely as appears in The Highlanders of Scotland